Animal Well is Tunic if it didn't have terrible combat. Alternatively, The Witness if you wanted it to be a video game.
Similarly to those and other figure-it-out games, it's nigh impossible to discuss without spoilers so I'm just not gonna. Point being if you like puzzles, platforming, and pretty visuals, you'll probably enjoy it.
...look, I know you're probably questioning the 3 star rating. In a nutshell: I thought the game was undeniably well crafted, but I'd be lying if I said I really had fun with a lot of its puzzles. There's a difference between solving and completing a puzzle, and despite the puzzles themselves being clever Animal Well handles the in-between rather poorly.
Pretty often you can see what needs to be done early on, especially if it fits on 1-2 screens. Aside from main route obstacles, most have enough execution steps and/or failure points that they take a while to be done even if you already see how to do them. Throughout the game I often completed a section only to feel more relieved than satisfied. Games only have so long to cash out their dopamine after any given revelation, and Animal Well runs the clock way too long more often than not.
The post game does go crazy though. I respect such a strong commitment to the bit.
Similarly to those and other figure-it-out games, it's nigh impossible to discuss without spoilers so I'm just not gonna. Point being if you like puzzles, platforming, and pretty visuals, you'll probably enjoy it.
...look, I know you're probably questioning the 3 star rating. In a nutshell: I thought the game was undeniably well crafted, but I'd be lying if I said I really had fun with a lot of its puzzles. There's a difference between solving and completing a puzzle, and despite the puzzles themselves being clever Animal Well handles the in-between rather poorly.
Pretty often you can see what needs to be done early on, especially if it fits on 1-2 screens. Aside from main route obstacles, most have enough execution steps and/or failure points that they take a while to be done even if you already see how to do them. Throughout the game I often completed a section only to feel more relieved than satisfied. Games only have so long to cash out their dopamine after any given revelation, and Animal Well runs the clock way too long more often than not.
The post game does go crazy though. I respect such a strong commitment to the bit.